High Risk Behavior
by YoYossarian
Summary: Emily and Spencer have planned a perfect, nerdy friend date - brunch, a visit to the Smithsonian, and a Russian-language short film festival. When Emily arrives a few minutes early to pick him up, however, she stumbles across an aspect of Spencer's life that he hasn't exactly been advertising. [one shot]


A/N - I'm borrowing these characters and promise to return them when I am done. Please review!

 _On my way to pick you up. Spe-mily's epic geek day commences in t-minus 30 minutes._

Emily took it as a good omen that traffic was light and she'd caught every green light on the drive from her condo to Reid's apartment. The trip took twenty two minutes instead of the usual thirty, so Spencer wasn't waiting outside his building when she pulled up. After months of trying to find the time, they'd managed to schedule the perfect friendship date - a Saturday jam packed with brunch, a visit to the Smithsonian, and a Russian-language short film festival.

Emily parallel parked across the street and had just pulled out her phone to call Spencer when the building's front door swung open and he stepped outside, bedraggled and squinting against the morning sunlight. Emily dropped the phone back into her purse and reached up to give the car horn a light honk when she noticed that he wasn't alone. Her hand froze, hovered over the horn.

The man who'd walked out of the building with Reid winced into the glaring sunlight as well and said something that Emily couldn't make out. Whatever it was, it made Spencer chuckle and turn to face him. Emily felt her jaw drop as the shorter man reached out, twisted his fingers into the fabric of Spencer's cardigan, and pulled the genius in for a searing kiss. Leaning into the handsome stranger, Reid returned the kiss, only pulling back when the other man reached down and ran a palm over his crotch.

Emily watched as Reid glanced down at his watch and made what appeared to be some comment about the time. The other man laughed, leaned for a final, chaste peck, and sauntered off down the street. Both men's body language screamed one-night stand. Reid, now alone, pulled sunglasses and his cell phone out of his messenger bag, and reached down to discretely adjust his pants.

Emily's brain, no longer short circuited, started churning through possibilities. Should she pretend she hadn't seen anything? Was that even a possibility given her parking spot? Would Reid be angry? Would he be embarrassed? Was he gay? If so, that made the handful of times they'd slept together over the years pretty confusing.

Fuck it. They were friends. Friends sometimes had awkward conversations. Emily reached up and gave the car horn a brief honk.

Reid's head snapped up as he scanned the line of parked cars for the source of the honk. Emily watched his reaction as he recognized her car, noticed how he anxiously flicked his tongue over his lips, before raising his hand in a small wave and heading across the street to meet her.

"Good morning, handsome" Emily said cheerfully as he opened the door and slid into the passenger seat.

"Morning, Em," he replied. "You're a little earlier than I anticipated."

"Caught every single green light," she smiled at him. "First stop brunch. I made a reservation at that place Garcia recommended."

"Sounds good," Spencer replied, eyeing her warily and clearly waiting for her to mention what she'd seen.

Emily pulled out of her parking spot and they drove in silence for a few minutes before he gave up on waiting and opened his mouth.

"After a tough case, when I'm tempted to engage in high risk behavior, I sometimes choose to pursue other... less high risk behavior as an alternative."

"When you're stressed and craving, you fuck random men instead of shooting up?"

Reid winced at her crass interpretation.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry. That came out wrong." Emily cringed and backtracked. "I didn't mean for it to come out so... judg-y."

She glanced over at him and he raised his eyebrows.

"Honest, no judgment here. You're an adult; you don't have to justify your preferences to anyone, much less me."

Another minute passed in silence. Emily kept her eyes on the road, but could feel Spencer having an internal debate in the passenger seat.

"While that's not exactly how I would phrase it, yes, that is what I'm doing. Dilaudid let me turn my brain off, let me stop feeling. I haven't used in years, but I don't think the cravings will ever completely go away. So sometimes when I'm having a tough time getting it off my mind, I go out to a bar and find someone to distract me."

He gazed across at her, waiting for a response.

"I didn't know that you were attracted to men."

"I've always been equally attracted to both women and men. I admit that I was startled when I realized that you'd arrived early this morning, but I've never purposefully hidden or lied about my sexuality. It's just that people don't ask a lot of questions when they assume that you're a thirty-two-year-old virgin."

That made Emily laugh, which in turn teased a wide grin out of Reid.

"That's a valid point. Morgan would be blow away."

"Are you going to tell him?"

"Come on, Reid. Who do you think I am? Garcia? I don't make a habit of running to Morgan with all the details of your sex life."

"Thanks," Reid said, smiling at her. "I'm not embarrassed, I just don't need him trying to set me up with all the single women and men that he knows."

"For a profiler he can be pretty oblivious sometimes," Emily laughed. "Remember when he tried to set you up with Cheryl in Accounting two hours after we rolled out of bed together?"

Reid grinned, nodded, and then his face grew more somber.

"Emily, I hope you understand that I value your friendship and trust you implicitly. I've been turning to strangers because I don't want you to feel responsible for my well being."

Emily nodded because for all the morning's revelations, that was the question that was eating away at her. They'd been sleeping together on and off for years. It hadn't affected their working relationship or their friendship, so why was Reid trolling bars for strangers when her shoulder and her bed had always been an option?

"And I hope you understand that you can call me when you're struggling. Whether you need to talk, fuck, or play poker. You're not a burden, Spence. You can always call me. "

Spencer smiled softly and nodded.

"I understand. Thank you."

"Excellent. Now that that's out of the way, we have an important decision to make. Are we doing mimosas or bloody marys?"


End file.
